Bear Bahoochie » Crafty Goodness

Library Promotional Badges

Kateri — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:42:18 +0000

I’ve a passion for library promotion and a fondness for library pin badges from my past. When I came across a badge maker at school I seized the opportunity to make my own promotional badges (well that was the professional reason, the fun reason was simply who doesn’t want to make badges?). I opted for a few that I could wear to help promote a display theme;

Then I decided to do a jokey one based on a slogan I’d seen online;

and finally given my love of Dr.Who (and as David Tennant comes from the County of Scotland where my school is based) I went with the classic quote from the episode Tooth and Claw.

“You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have – arm yourselves! ”

I’ve discovered I have rather a lot of vintage library badges (I’ve a crafty plan for what to do with them so it’s not totally pointless) but since some of the slogans might inspire I’ve decided to blog one a week, every Sunday until I run out or I actually complete the crafty project.

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

Kateri — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:48:42 +0000

All parcels are exciting but few were as great as this one from Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.

For starters there are all the stamps around the outside;

(Do Not Expose To Holy Water)

But the best stamp was this one

I really wish the ‘Flying Monkey Tracking Service’ was real.

So the outside was pretty damn exciting. The inside didn’t disappoint;

It was cursed with bad luck;

and as I lifted out the packing I gave out a scream as a cockroach dropped out the pile. Underneath was the stuff I’d ordered - Creeping Dread and Zombie Fresh Mints! Absolute genius.

Bowtie

Kateri — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:10:50 +0000

There was one other piece of festive crafting – a bow-tie for my hubby. He wore it with pride at his works night out, Christmas dinner and New Year’s Day. He won’t however let me publish a photo of himself in it (don’t know why I think he looked great) so instead I can just share this bow-tie close up.

The pattern came from Martha Stewart but something I didn’t think about when I started was that one size won’t fit all as guys necks aren’t all the same size. So having made a lovely perfect bow-tie I had to cut it in half and insert an extra length of fabric! So that is something worth checking on before sewing.

Christmas Crafts

Kateri — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:29:58 +0000

So having given out the final Christmas pressies I can now share what I’ve been up to craft wise for the past month or so.

It started with the sewing of travel tags (as seen on Design Sponge), Japanese Knot bags (from Making January 2012), embroidered tea towels (with designs from Sublime Stitching) and cocktail napkins (also seen on Design Sponge).

Next were the Christmas decorations – all originals by me though I’m happy to admit that the Death of Rats and Wally were based on an images I found online (I did look to link but can’t find the Death of Rats image again).

However, the best decoration I made was this one of Rincewind and the Luggage based on the coaster from Paul Kirby.

Camp Crafting

Kateri — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:12:07 +0000

Alas this is not a big gay craft session, rather one for the upcoming SS11 event I’m involved with. As in the past couple of years, I’ve been assigned to the crafts and so I’m having to try things out.

I started with the rings from Mollie’s Makes vol.3:
but I decided that for a camp project it was a bit too long and fiddly (some of my girls have additional needs so it needs to be something we can vary the difficulty or input a bit more).

So next I tried out a felt brooch using the templates for the flower brooches again from vol.3 of Mollie’s Makes (in the magazine they use stiffened fabric)
Verdict: Too big, too long to do and not as nice as I’d hoped.

After a bit of a re-think, an internet search and a review of crafty supplies available I opted to make flowers and either add them to a hairband or add a pin to the back. Made using left-overs from dance outfit fabrics with a felt base these are easy, fun to do, fast and look good. I found a great how-to at make it-love it The only difference with the ones online was that the fabric I was using is non-fray and possibly a bit thicker so I found 30 circles was sometimes too many. Also I hand sewed mine so to cover up I added a second circle of felt to the back and used that to sandwich the hairband between or add a pin to.

On the upside the hairband offers additional variations if folks want – I added the dog from Mollie’s Makes Vol.3 to one of them
Finally (at least for this post) I made badges for my Lone Senior Section members who’ll be on site as well:

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Things About Kateri

Kateri — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:31:50 +0000

Craft have set a challenge to blog “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Things About” so here goes:

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of…
‘Bears from Fame’ as this got praise from bear artists that I really admire like Karen Apps! Plus it makes me smile when I see it. I’m so proud of the leggings

Two Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past…
1. not closing the head enough so that it fell off.
2. giving the bears thumbs (yeah there is a reason they don’t have them)

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique…
1. look – my stuff always looks like mine, can’t explain it but there is a expression that they all have regardless of how I’ve made them.
2. a touch of geek mixed with trying to be as simple as possible (I love the intricate costumes but they don’t seem to work well for my style).
3. all the bears and critters have a thistle embroidered on their foot – a small way to make them mine and everyone unique.

Four Tools You Love to Use…
1. locking forceps – make turning so much easier
2. sharp needles – for tiny sitiches
3. my small fiskar sissors – small and sharp and perfect for cutting out the fabric shapes
4. quilting thread – good for attaching eyes and string jointing

Five Inspirations…
1. little things – little trinkets, charms, trimmings etc. always give me ideas and start thoughts flying
2. my rats – their expressions and personalities are a great place to get ideas for the way the faces of my critters look
3. magazines and books – I read loads and find inspiration in all of it from fiction to dedicated craft maagzines
4. family and friends – I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by inspirational people. The keys ones are my Mum who does patchwork, my sister decorates cakes and my mate Clair tries anything. They are always good for ideas and challenges.
5. internet – so many ideas, crafty people and support is available. I read a range of blogs and websites which offer lots of ideas many things I’ve never thought of

Discworld Crafts

Kateri — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:50:07 +0000

I did a couple of swaps with Swap-bot on a Discworld theme. For the first one I made a ATC of Greebo. I drew Greebo myself but the text was a copy from one of the books and the quote was printed up on the computer.Then I did a felt badge of Nanny Ogg based on the Paul Kirby design (I also sent them a coaster and a couple of badges from the site).

I likes Armadillos

Kateri — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:26:33 +0000

I came across this super cute armadillo on Julissa Mora’s Blog

Plus Zoo borns has some super cute baby armadillo pics

Even better I came across this lovely needle felted armadillo on Kit’s Home for Orphaned Armadillos

Sock Love

Kateri — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:36:36 +0000

Way back in 2009 I went a bit crazy about sock monsters but recently I’ve seen endless other great ideas for sock creations. Today I saw this super cute Sock Owl from Whimsy Loft

Or cute little sock bunny from elsiemarley.com!

Or a Disney’s Family Fun suggest a sock mobile

Robert Mahar has shared his sock skeleton creation over on Martha Stewart.comBut what if it’s not spare socks that are cluttering the drawers. I always find as I ‘spring clean’ it’s odd gloves. Well that lonely glove is just waiting to be made into a Chipmunk! Least according to this great tutorial from I came across at Dinner for Mouschi

and if that isn’t enough glove inspiration Martha Stewart has instructions on how to make these cuties.

Hello, my name is…

Kateri — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:51:44 +0000

As a huge fans of The Princess Bride by William Goldman (the best book/movie ever!) I just had to share this link to the Cubeecraft Princess Bride character paper models!

If you have yet to sample the delights of this wondrous work then perhaps the movie tag line will inspire you to seek it out:
“Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair – True love has never been a snap”

It is full of classic lines and memorable moments though a personal favourite is when Vizzini is locked in a battle of wits with the mysterious Man in Black:

“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” – but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…”